Chess-playing device



Patented Mar. 31, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PEDRO SCALABRINI ORTIZ AND HUMBERTO ANTONIO. TESTA, OF B'O'ENOS AIBES,

- ARGENTINA.

CHESS-PLAYING DEVICE.

Application filed November 10. 1922. Serial No. 599,982.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that'we, PEDRO SCALABRINI ORTIZ and-HUMBER'ro AN'roNIo TES'IA, both citizens of the Argentine Republic, residing at calle Maipfi 671, Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic, have invented new and useful Improvements in a Chess-Playing Device, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to means for indicating the moves of pieces or men in games such as chess, and more particularly to a game device which makes such indications possible.

Many celebrated matches and ingenious combinations of moves have been recorded heretofore by means of certain conventional symbols, and a player so desiring, could reproduce the actual moves by reading these records. However, he would of necessity have to be familiar with and understand these symbols.

Our invention attains the same object without making it essential fora player to learn these symbols or even to understand the game, inasmuch as it indicates directly on t e game board which pieces are to be moved and how they are to be moved. It thus serves also as a valuable aid to beginnersfand can be used for purposes of instruction.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 represents a plan view of our apparatus, and Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation along the line NB of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, 1 indicates a rectangular casing or frame with an open top. Inside the four upper edges is a ledge on which rests a substantially transparent plate or board 2 which may be made of glass, celluloid, or other suitable material. It is provided with markings dividing it into checkered squares, as would be required, for example, in the game of chess, or into other fieldsdepending upon the game to be played. Immediately below this plate or game board is a tape 4 which rests on a supporting plane 3, the latter being su ported by small inwardly projecting brac ets on opposite inside faces of the casing 1. The tape 4 is wound around drums 5 and 6 journaled in holes near the ends of the same two faces of the casing. These drums are pivoted in a readily detachable manner at one end and are rotatable by means of buttons 7 and 8 respectively. Thus the tape 4 may be moved in either direction, rolling off one drunf and onto the other, or vice versa. The plate or game board 2 being removable from its supporting ledge, the drums and the tape are accessible and may be readily threaded or adjusted.

The tape may be made of paper or other suitable material and on its upper face are printed or otherwise recorded a series of pairs of arrows which shall be visible through the game board '2. Each pair of arrows occupies an area of the tape equal to the size of the board 2 and these areas adjoin each other successively along the length of the tape.

In operation, the tape is turned so that the area occupied by a pair of these arrows coincides with the area of the board. The arrows now indicate to the player which of the pieces of the one side (or blacks) is to be moved, and how it is to be moved; and they indicate also which of the opponents (or whites) pieces is to be moved in response, or vice versa. On turning the tape so as to bring the next area (and its arrows) in' coincidence with the board, the next two successive moves are indicated, i. e., one for the blacks and a response by the Whites, or vice versa. In this way an entire game may be reproduced either Wholly or in part, or various isolated combinations of moves may be indicated, as v desired.

It is evident that the arrows may be so placed that only one will occupy one of the g; seaoee surface being provided with indicating 3. A game device, as claimed in claim 1, marks each of a length sufiicient to extend in which each of said indicating marks is under at least two adjacent fields. of a size suflicient visibly to indicate one 1 2. A game device, as claimed in claim 1, complete move in a game. 5 in which said indicating marks are arranged I in groups in successive areas defined by the PEDRU SCALABRINI ORTIZ. length of said board. HUMBERTO ANTONIO TESTA. 

